Rather than allowing academics to intervene, the board voted unanimously to tweak its current system, mandating that review panels be made up of “at least a majority” of people with “sufficient content expertise and experience” as determined by the Texas education commissioner.

Independent booksellers up and down the country are preparing to host a “Civilised Saturday” next week, as the “perfect antidote” to the cut-throat bargain-hunting and frenzied shopping of the upcoming Black Friday.